Due to another post currently running in Z Related, someone had mentioned there are many posts tucked away that speak of nothing but problems and frustration, not to mention the art of wallet syphoning. A brief history and statistics of my Zed. I imported my 1990 Automatic 2+2 Twin Turbo in March 2005. It was one of eight I had to choose and what made it stand out form the crowd was the simple fact it was still totally standard, not one modification to be found. Since taking possession of it, I was really pleased with not only how comfortable it was to drive but also how well it handled and steered, not to mention the power of the Twin Turbos kicking in, (couldn't help myself, I love that add ) also it demands attention in the looks department. Wanting to ensure it's maintenance standard I performed the 100K service. This consisted of an array of parts that came in around $700. Although these engine bays look scary they are really quite well engineered for working on the sorts of things that require periodical maintenance. You won't find an easier engine to replace the fuel filter and spark plugs anywhere. Maintenance costs are a fraction higher than an Australian built car, just like any Japanese import or locally built model but in my case, I find that if you know where to look, cost wise is almost the same. 208Kw in it's standard form is nice to give you a buz when you have previously owned 5 Litre Commodores, but after about $400 worth of work, this figure is easily raised another 50KW on average which really is a kick in the pants so you are looking at just above 210KW at the treads. Even in it's standard form it would beat the commy by over a second on the 1/4 mile but with this added 'boost', take almost another second off that. Being a modest horsepower junkie, the engine soon came out to fit larger turbos, injectors and other little hot up bits to make the smile on my dial wider After some tuning to the ECU and some dyno time it now currently pushes 273KW at the wheels, yes that is 364 horse power for those not yet familiar with that scale. This was developed at only 15 PSI pressure at the manifold and using 98 octane fuel straight from the bowser. So with a little more effort from the hair dryers and a little jungle juice in the tank, this package will make 300Kw easily. Take note, this is all done with a totally standard engine, it has never been opened up. Fuel economy has been exceptional for a car that weighs over 1.6 tonnes and developing these sorts of figures returning about 14 litres /100Km around town and 10 litres on some relaxed highway cruising. The styling of the Z32 is complimenting in it's standard form which is why I have opted only to fit some larger rollers to the package. Yep lets ditch the stock 16" package and throw on some deep dish 19's, with a wider rim on the back to give that tough stance. I plan to lower it slightly in the future to make up for the slight increase in ride height but for now, the complements keep coming anyway Overall this car has brought me great satisfaction and I enjoy driving it so much, I even make excuses just to drive it. It has an awesome community that support them technically (and socially), the advice and even hands on help is always there when a cry for help is heard. When it comes to traps, these cars would carry similar traps you would find with most vehicles of it's age but there are some that have been meticulously looked after and this trend seems to be only growing stronger due to more 'enthusisats' now hold the rego certificate.
I support the Zed In the 10 months i have owned my TT 5speed, and absolutely raped it for that time, i have done nothing more than oil and filter every 3000 kays. 3 sets of front pads , and 8 tyres. i have had none of the hunting idle problems, no over heating, no worries.
Wouldn't have it any other way. coming from a someone who has gone through some hiccups with my z I have to say I LOVE MY Z! if i had the opportunity to turn back time and chose whether or not i still buy this car i wouldn't have it any other way!!! :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove:
while i find the zed does have its shortcomings i beleive they are no more than any other imports,and once you understand how the zed works mechanically they are cheap enought o own maintain.... i love my car and would have regreted buting anything but the z:zlove:
Into Zeds I've only had my Zed a short time now but I don't think I could ever get rid of her now. Had the choice of buying a Zed or XR6t glad I bought the Zed. curently spending the diffrence in price on my baby. After all when your drivig down the road who looks at an XR6t no one but everyone stares at your ZED. :zlove:
My zed is the 41st or 42nd car I've owned (lost track over the years) and I cannot see me owning any other car :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove: :zlove:
Good write-up Karl :zlove: You've got a beaut Zed and can be proud to have done all the work yourself to maintain and improve her. Look forward to catching up with you in May. PS: 4 years of ownership and I've had no problems other than a blown tranny ... preventative maintenance is the key. :zlove: :zlove: :zlove:
Agree with you whole heartedly! There's been way too many negative posts on the forum about things that go wrong with the car. Mine is now 17 years old! For Christ sake, things go wrong with 17 year old cars! I just love to look at it standing still, and love it even more when it's moving. If something goes wrong, fix it. If you can't fix it, get someone else to do it. If you don't like paying someone else to do it, get a shitbox Commodore and look like any other tool on the road. You've just got to love the Zeds, faults and all! I fell in love with these in 1989 and am still totally rapt!
excellent write up, karl .. really enjoyed reading it .. .. i bought m zed in total ignorance, mechanically inept and unaware of the forum .. by chance, i found aus300zx .. and have not looked back .. i had almost immediate issues identified at my first tech day .. the QLD zed community took me under their incredibly generous wing ... guided me in matters zed from one piece tailshafts, to 100kkm services, to plenum pulls, to heater cores, to australia's top zed workshop and against good advice, to da bling ... and heaps of other zed stuff ... today, i have my beautiful black bess .. and like unca mark, have owned probably 40 plus cars from beemers to volkswagons ... holdens to fiats .. never have i been happier driving a vehicle .. the zed is simply magic .. and i now see myself driving either bess or another zed until whenever ..... yep, i love my zed and thanks to this great group of people i have a zed that while initially had a few issues is now a fine, mechanically sound, fantastic work of art .... and to prove all this .. bess has had two showers and shampoos this week alone .. by someone who seldom ever washed a car ever ... !!! there is only one way to go .. GO THE ZED ....
good to see some positive comments... I am a new owner, and I still cant believe how good the 300zx TT is relative to other cars I could have purchased for the same money. Its got the sporting 'Le Mans' car look. Its got good aerodynamics. Its got grunt, even stock its a neck-snapper. Its got fine handling. Its got plenty of technology, like ABS and rear wheel steering. It cost less to insure than my EF Falcon did. It uses less petrol than my EF Falcon did. Its not much more expensive for service than my EF Falcon did. Parts, esp' 2nd hand recon ones are readily available at reasonable prices. The second hand ones come with extras like subs, amps, turbo timers, boost controllers, large mag wheels, sports exhausts, custom front bars... the list goes on.
Love the zed. Had it about 3 months now and spent $9000 fixing problems due to lack of maintainence from previous owners (100km sevice, exedy clutch, rear main seal, one piece tailshaft, twin turbo brake caliper swap with Brembo disks, new pads, adjustable upper arms, reco steering rack with new rack ends and fittings, reco master cylinder, new rims because original ones were buckled when I bought the car) but when I do drive it, you forget about how much you've spent on it. All you think about is how much better it is now that you spent the dollars fixing it up.:zlove: :zlove: :zlove:
I enjoy just about everything about my TT auto. I've had a series of performance cars if you like, mixed up with small Jap cars in between. Most of the performance cars have been about 15 years old mainly by coincidence at the stage I've bought them. Not doing a lot of km's a year these are my main car but probably 8000km a year would pull me up so fuel economy and commuting in daily traffic are not concerns. E38 Charger which had a fruity exhaust system, rebuilt front suspension. A very original car with all the tags, etc and beautiful cruising car in top gear with lots of pull. But hot days and bumper to bumper traffic with triple Webers and she was not happy. This I sold to a restorer in Gippsland for $6500 registered and running. Then a big gap to a 928 S4 Porsche which cost about $40k with 86km on the clock. Without an aftermarket exhaust system lacking a bit of character but very good brakes, quite fast once it got going and very fast across country and on open roads. Able to trundle around town or down to the shops. My first car with an immo bilizer and aftermarket alarm. 18" wheels with very low profile tyres. A constant battle to avoid scuffmarks when parking with the electric mirrors. Moving to Mar 2006 my TT import finally arrived. The thought was Porsche performance with some money back and lower maintenence. It was a Grade 4.0 Jap auction car with all the books and service records (albeit in Japanese), leather folders, tags. Everything except the jack! Around 23mpg on runs, perhaps 19mpg around town. Love the automatic gearbox in the O/D off mode around town and even without the cruise control easy to drive at the speed limit. Lately making a lot of use of the cruise control as it's just easier in Melb and Vic. Have yet to really drive this hard. With it's torque and boost it pulls like a train so the need to exceed 3000 or 4000rpm is rare. For some reason I don't seem to run against WRXs or even Commodores on the road. On a cool night mine feels unbeatable. Driving it sensibly and lawfully it has the instant response should the situation require. And sitting in the very comfortable leather seats you know anyway you have the measure of most cars you will run into so there is very little to prove. Everything on mine bar the rear window washer functions perfectly. Having found a great mechanic (Wallards), a very helpful panelbeater who they know and thanks for one member here for a near mint new spoiler almost done. Now at the stage where having gotten to know the car I can head off to places a few hundred km out of Melbourne and back in full confidence for the day. But short, medium or long every drive is an enjoyable one. It's definitely a car that you drive around the block a few times or detour on the scenic route before heading home. What will come after the 300ZX? Have thought about Supra TT or an R32 or R33 GTR. Whether or not though these have the comfort, versatility and iron fist in the velvet glove and style of the 300ZX TT yet to find out.
I came across Zeds by accident. I was looking to buy a car but there was nothing out there that appealed to me. I remember when I was working in North Sydney in the early 90's and a new Zed was parked across the road from work, and I liked the car back then. But they were very expensive at that time. Fast forward to 2006 and I was walking past a car yard in Cairns and they had a silver NA zed for $12,000. It was love at first sight. But I am glad I was gazumped on that buy. it gave me time to look around, and a 1994 Zed in Melbourne was up for sale. It had a factory leather interior, standard Bose sound system and was a TT manual. So I flew down to Melbourne, picked up the car and drove 3000 km back to Cairns without any dramas. Apart from a burst cooling hose, fixing the air-con and some minor stuff it has been everything I expected and a whole lot more. And I also would also say that I could not own this car without the amazing tech info on this site. Thanks to everyone involved at aus300zx.com :zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove:
I LOVE MY ZED!! My mates bag me out cause it does chew up alot of my money (being a uni student and all)..but I've had my zed for over 3 years now and I have loved owning it. I admit at times I've been frustrated trying to figure things out for myself and get decent advice on the car.. but since finding this forum it has opened my eyes up to a whole other side of owning a zed. :zlove: :zlove: The info on this forum is second to none and if you take the time to read, you can learn so much about your car.. Now that I've finally found the right place to get work done on my car (AMEC), I don't want to sell the zed. Everything is going right and after hearing good news on my compression test (150psi in 5 cylinders and 155psi in 1), its making it harder to part with the zed after I've been through so much with the car.. Now when I run into a problem with the car I have the forum there along with the great people that make it up, to help me through..I think its truly great.. Not sure how I'm going to let go of the zed but its something thats required alot of thought on my behalf..I don't think I'll ever get the same satisfaction from a car. My mate had a zed then sold it and got himself the skyrine fever and he still kicks himself.. haha :zlove: I have to say the zed is one car that I'll never forget:zlove: :zlove: :zlove:
I take a different slant on Zeds than most of what I have read here. Out of 891 active members (what's that, maybe 800 Zeds?), I've seen posts of woes that would suggest that only about 40-50 of these are genuine lemons (and even that estimate is probably too high). Most of the other problems could have been avoided with knowledge and/or experience, or being somewhere else at the time (foresight/prescience?). Seems to me to be a pretty damn good percentage of good/well maintained Zeds out there! My only problems have been because of things like : not knowing the chosen mechanic was incapable of doing what I was lead to believe he could; wrong place at the wrong time (big dent); my stupidity (big scratch); my inattention to detail (P/S fluid leak eventually killed the alternator killed), you know the stuff I mean, and it's NOT the cars fault! (The numbers I assume above do NOT include the crap that's for sale that we would not touch with a barge pole)
From and old Zedder Had a hot Zed a few years back low mileage awesome kit and wheels etc... for some reason on a dark rainy night it decided to commit suicide... a tribute to the beast, I walked away although sadly the wreck (I purchased for $23500) bought a mere $4200 at the auction. Not to be deterred I waited some 15 months to acquire another... this time basic untouched.... low kms 1995, most happy with the result.. keeps up with anything on a cruise... going to give it a present or two... 18's and some good rubber and a couple of cannons.. limited body work but looking to develop a sleeper around 300rwk would do me. From an old petrol head who has owned all sorts of stuff... these little gems are on the classic list.. May be a difficult piece of machinery to work on but if u can find a good mechanic who also appreciates 300zx's you will have many years of awesome cruising... not to mention that u can stick it up most other pieces of high priced plastic of today and years gone by. Gotta support the (Japanese Super Car) Helps if you can find a good one.....
Love the Zeds. My dad pointed one out to me when I was a kid, would have been in 90-91, ever since then I've loved em. When I finished Uni and started working full time I decided to buy a decent car, didn't take long to decide that car would be a Zed. I looked around down here for a while and actually found one I wanted to buy, but someone else beet me to it. So I started looking interstate, I found the perfect one a couple of months later in Sydney. 1995 model, sapphire blue, leather interior, manual, TT, 2+2, everything I'd been looking for. After many conversations with the owner, and his mechanic I decided it was worth flying up to have a look at. I fell in love instantly, the car was in excellent condition, drove superbly, I bought it on the spot and drove it back to Tassie. We had a 9 month love affair and then it broke my heart. Something went wrong in cylinder 2, I'm still not sure what, my machinist reckons maybe a momentary injector failure. Anyway what ever it was led to a shattered compression ring. So now the engines in pieces and the Zeds gathering dust in the shed. But I don't love her any less, soon she will return in all her glory better that ever. Plus I've learned a hell of a lot about how these cars work, I now literally know the engine inside out and will be a very proud many when I hear her growl again. So that's my story. Even though I suffered a major mechanical drama, I wouldn't change a thing, the 9 months of driving pleasure more than made up for it.
